Congress just passed a controversial cyber-spying bill that will almost certainly become law

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque Congress just passed the $1.15 trillion end-of-year budget, and with it, a controversial cybersecurity bill that has received opposition for violating user privacy.

The New York Times reported that the omnibus bill was passed with overwhelming support and that President Barack Obama will sign it into law.

Congress wrapped the controversial cybersecurity bill, formerly known as the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), into the omnibus bill Wednesday. The bill, which is now known as the The Cybersecurity Act of 2015, puts pressure on technology and manufacturing companies to send cybersecurity threats to the federal government.

Congress' choice to wrap CISA into the omnibus bill has taken heat, as it was a sure-fire way to ensure it will pass through without a hiccup, even though it has received major opposition from tech companies and internet security experts. Experts have said it violates user privacy while failing to appropriately address the cybersecurity breaches we've seen.

When Congress wrapped CISA into the omnibus bill, they took out many of the provisions that had been put in place by the Senate to protect user privacy — provisions that were already considered too weak.

"The way this came about and the way it was pushed through is certainly concerning," Erik Knight, CEO of security company SimpleWan, told Tech Insider. "The last bill had a chance for the public to understand what was going on and what was at risk and the way this has been packaged— I don't think most of the general population know this is being pushed through."

To be clear, there is nothing explicitly written in CISA that requires tech companies to hand over your private information.

But opponents of the bill have argued that it's not clear about what constitutes a cybersecurity threat. This means any kind of potential threat will be forked over to the government so that tech companies aren't liable for obscuring a potential security breach.

"There is essentially no privacy scrub for unrelated personal information," Mark Jaycox, a legislative analyst for the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Tech Insider. "The privacy protections are definitely worse than in CISA — it's certainly a worse bill in regards to privacy."

Major tech companies have taken a stand against the bill.

The Computer and Communications Industry Association, a trade group that includes Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, have voiced opposition to the bill. Twitter and Reddit have also taken a public stance against the bill.

"No one should have to decide privacy or security," he said. "We should be smart enough to do both."

Fight for the Future, a nonprofit advocacy group for digital rights, has taken a public stance to CISA being wrapped into the omnibus bill.

"It's clear now that this bill was never intended to prevent cyber attacks," Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, wrote on the group's Tumblr page.

"It's a disingenuous attempt to quietly expand the U.S. government's surveillance programs, and it will inevitably lead to law enforcement agencies using the data they collect from companies through this program to investigate, prosecute, and incarcerate more people, deepening injustices in our society while failing to improve security," Greer continued.